Monday, June 11, 2012

Planning A Trip To Max Brenner?

Max Brenner, am I right? Their hot chocolate is delicious. At upwards of $6 a cup, it would want to be. Life can be kind of uncertain and sucky these days and a hot chocolate at Max Brenner is a harmless treat, surely? Actually, no. Here's what you should know before deciding to shell out your hard earned for a steaming cocoa treat.

The Max Brenner chain is owned by the Strauss Group, Israel's second largest food and beverage company. And, whilst they've recently removed all references to it on their website, Strauss is a major supporter of the Israeli Defence Force, amongst other support supplying platoons of the IDF with Max Brenner chocolate gift packages. Now, of course Israel has a right to defend itself, which requires a defence force. The problem decent people have with the IDF is their actions in Palestine, which Israel has been illegally occupying for 45 years, committing sometimes terrible acts to maintain its illegal occupation. One of the brigades sponsored by Max Brenner was a key part of Operation Defensive Shield, where in the guise of preventing suicide bombings, the IDF bulldozed the homes of some 13,000 Palestinian civilians. to read more of the effects of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian populace, go here. Or just imagine it was you. Imagine if before you were born the land your family had lived on for centuries was annexed, and you were born in occupied territory, unable to travel freely, unable to work, with essential supplies and infrastructure cut off, not even knowing if your home would be bulldozed, if your children were safe playing in the street.

Sadly, coverage of this in the mainstream media has been very skewed, with the boycott painted as the anti-Semitic actions of an extremist fringe. Max Brenner himself has been painted in a highly misleading article in The Australian as a "man of peace", with no links to the Israeli army other than by having completed his compulsory national service. The article gives no mention of the involvement of the Strauss group and their support of IDF brigades committing atrocities in Palestine. Israeli soldiers are munching on Max Brenner chocolates whilst bulldozing Palestinian houses, and by giving them your business, you're helping to pay for it.

Reasons not to give your business to Max Brenner have nothing to do with anti-Semitism - if it was about Max Brenner being owned Jewish-owned, surely there are bigger targets, like Westfield. It's not about Max Brenner's parent company being an Israeli company, either. I like the vast majority of those who support the BDS support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish home state. Our problem is with the acts of the Israeli army in maintaining the Palestinian occupation. The media and governments are not holding Israel to account, so it's up to us as individuals to get the momentum rolling. Read more on the issue, learn what's going on, then please consider getting your hot chocolate somewhere else.